Nearly 100 marine business delegates gathered for the most marine sector focused event in the county last week at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth.

Cornwall Marine Network (CMN) took the opportunity at its Annual Members' Event to showcase the wide-ranging specialist support it delivers to the industry, to celebrate achievements in what for some has been a turbulent financial year, and to demonstrating how it is adapting its services in a new economic era.

The network is dedicated to promoting the prosperity of the Cornish marine sector which is valued at £485m per annum and accounts for 14,000 jobs in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

With some 350 members, who represent 93% of sector turnover in Cornwall, CMN is recognised as the representative voice of the marine industry in Cornwall. It supports member marine businesses through specialist marketing, training and innovation services and since 2007 has supported 4,365 learners in marine training and helped to create 472 new jobs.

CMN's Steve Richards, ITQ Lead IV 

Speaking at the Members' Event, CMN CEO Paul Wickes said: "Many of our achievements have been without parallel, and have been recognised as such by our regional, national and European partners. We have supported one in five of the Cornish marine sector workforce in training and, with one in four young people in the region now out of work, we have created comprehensive progression routes for young people into work experience, jobs and apprenticeships."

Since first employing staff in 2005, CMN has drawn £6.5million of regional, national and European funding into the sector. This has enabled it to engage its marine members in a range of beneficial initiatives. For example, through ESF Convergence Funding its Cornwall Marine Academy has worked with 1500 young people and 21 secondary schools in Cornwall to establish vocational pathways for students into the industry.

In the past year, its Marketing Department has created opportunities for nearly 100 marine businesses to attend 24 specialist business workshops in subjects ranging from customer services and sales to how to write for the web and an introduction to marketing.

And CMN is actively involved in several trans-national projects such as the three year MERiFIC project which will create economic opportunities for Cornish marine businesses in the emerging marine renewable energy industry.

Looking beyond Convergence in Cornwall, CMN announced it has broadened its vision and is collaborating with other sister networks in the south of England to establish the UK Marine Academy (UKMA) with a collective voice of 2551 marine businesses. This new umbrella organisation will increase evidence of employer-led demand and therefore the likelihood of mainstream national funding. It will align the UKMA on a national skills agenda and it will allow CMN to apply its business model to different regions in the UK, while maintaining critical focus in Cornwall.

CMN Chairman John Langan closed the Members' Event by reminding marine delgates: "This network is owned by you and its dedicated team work hard to create opportunities for you. It is now thinking strategically and examining how it can shape the business in order to tap into new opportunities in the future."

The presentations were followed by a networking buffet, where members took the chance to share their experiences with like-minded businesses.

November 2011